Eskom System Remains Vulnerable, While Chances Of Load Shedding ‘are Low’

Eskom released a statement on Sunday morning, stating that the power utility’s power system remained constrained and vulnerable, although the likelihood of unplanned outages remained low.

The utility reintroduced load shedding in late October after damage to hardware at a coal power station interrupted the ability to move and burn a sufficient amount of coal.

On Saturday morning Eskom also said that the power system remained constrained and vulnerable, with generating plants performing at very low levels of reliability.

The statement said while no load shedding was expected for the day, there were constraints and vulnerabilities in the system.

“With unplanned outages below 9000MW as at 08:00 today, the probability of load shedding is low, but should there be a significant shift on the system we may need to loadshed at short notice,” the statement said.

The statement said there was enough diesel for Eskom’s open cycle gas turbines and water at pumped storage schemes to make up for any shortage of capacity.

The statement added that Eskom’s emergency response command centre continued to monitor the system closely and that an update on the state of the system would be provided later on Sunday.

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